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Thinking of original recipes, putting together indoor light lamps, photographing every step of the cooking process, editing photos, and coming up witticisms about pictures of my food seems like absolute drudgery these days.

I have also been feeling exceptionally uninspired lately.

The thing is I still like to read blogs, peruse cookbooks, shop for unique ingredients, put together meal plans, try new recipes, find fun workouts, learn about nutrition, holistic health, the human body, and talk about all things vegan.

In fact, I could spend a whole weekend doing those things.

I could even spend a whole cold, dreary, gray January weekend, curled up in my favorite fleece blanket putting together a list of all my favorite food, health, and wellness things.

I could spend the better part of a day paging through any and all cookbooks, but when I need some meal planning help, it’s a short list:

Veganomican

by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

If you’re making your foray into vegan cooking, and you can only afford one cookbook, this is the one to buy. It has everything you will ever need to be able to cook wholesome and delicious vegan food for the rest of your life. It contains recipes from every category including appetizers, snacks, dips, spreads, brunch, salads, dressings, sandwiches, vegetables, grains, beans, soups, casseroles, tofu, tempeh, pasta, breads, cookies, and desserts.

Not only that, it has basic cooking guides for grains, vegetables, and beans so you can try a variety of techniques and put together your own meals.

It is literally an encyclopedia of cooking and recipes.

Mine is splattered with various batters and sauces because every recipe I have tried has been awesome. Usually, I find only one or two recipes I make more than once from a cookbook, but this book is filled with recipes that will become part of your weekly rotation.

I promise.

When I’m looking for lower calorie fare, I reach for

Appetite for Reduction

by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

What can I say? This girl has it going on. All of her food is so, so good! This book is packed with salads, dressings, hummus, veggies, pasta, soups, and comforting stews and chili. If it sounds plain, it’s because I’m not a good enough writer to properly do it justice. However, let the recipes speak for themselves:

Sanctuary Chef Salad

Green Goddess Garlic Dressing

Catalan Couscous Salad with Pears and Romanesco Dressing

OMG Oven Baked Onion Rings

Butternut Coconut Rice

Garlicky Mushrooms and Kale

Mac and Trees

Lotsa Veggie Lentil Soup

Veggie Potpie Stew

Some of the recipes sound exotic, but they are all simple and are perfect for the weeknight meal rotation. Plus they are filled with whole grains, veggies, beans, and aren’t excessive in fat or calories. I also appreciate that it includes the nutritional stats for each recipe for those who like to keep track of that sort of thing.

If you read the blog with any regularity, you have seen this book pop up from time to time:

VEGAN COOKIES INVADE YOUR COOKIE JAR

It’s because it’s filled with no-fuss cookie recipes that no one would ever guess are vegan. They are real cookies. None of that health food crap pretending to be a classic cookie. It’s fat, sugar, and flour and all your childhood memories mixed together in a bowl and baked until the tears from the realization that adulthood is hard have dried up.

The book I’m looking forward to cooking from:

Betty Goes Vegan

by Betty and Dan Shannon

This book is also an encyclopedia of vegan cookery and I can’t wait to get crackin’. Vegan Betty has a little bit of everything but all 500(!) recipes are inspired from traditional Betty Crocker recipes. It’s a combination of nutritious eats and veganized comfort food classics, and there is a recipe for every occasion including:

Blueberry Banana Bread Pancakes

Mediterranean Salad

Vegan Ranch Dressing

Bean and Cheese Enchiladas

French Toast Biscotti

Pizza Bread

Peanut Butter Egg Cookies

Doughnuts

More Doughnuts

Inside Out Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

Chocolate Hazlenut Pudding

Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

There are also plenty of recipes for sauces, dressings, pie crusts, puddings, and frostings to add to foods already in your arsenal.

A word of warning: Many of the recipes in the book contain processed vegan meat and cheese replacements. It’s nothing to get in a huff about but don’t get all pissed off at me if you buy the book hoping for 100% whole foods. Remember, its imitating the meat and cheese goddess of the 20th century. And personally, I have no problem having those things on occasion. I try not to make them staples of my diet, but if I’m hankering for pizza, then Daiya cheese just might find its way on top of it. All things in moderation and all that blah, blah, blah.

The book I want but don’t have:

Vegetarian Flavor Bible

I’m depending on this book to make up for my shortcomings as a self-taught home cook and help me put together foods and flavors that go beyond peanutbutter/banana and tomato/basil. I like to experiment but since time, money, and resources are at a premium, I’d sure appreciate not having to throw away a whole cake because I was just so sure it needed two tablespoons of cardamom powder.

And in the things you need to know category:

THIN MINTS ARE NOW VEGAN!

Sure, we could get in a debate about the best tasting Girl Scout Cookie but we all know that there is one cookie that punches every other cookie in it’s sweet, sweet face.

Thin Mints have always been my all-time favorite Girl Scout cookie.

And now those cute, little cookie monsters have made them Vegan.

I shall enjoy them by the sleeve and make sure that each and every tooth is crusted in Thin Mint Cookie crumbs.

I’ll be back at a later undisclosed date and time with more randomness floating around my brain space!

*Note: Some people get compensated for featuring things on their blog. I am not one of those people. This is just a list of stuff I truly, actually like.

Mix until a pliable dough forms (add additional flour by the tablespoon, if needed).

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let chill while you prepare the frosting.

I used a basic buttercream recipe directly from my second favorite book:

For the

Vanilla Whipped Buttercream Frosting:

1/2 cup non-hydrogenated shortening

1/2 cup non-hydrogenated margarine

3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup non-dairy milk

Beat the shortening and margarine together until creamy and fluffily. Add in the powdered sugar about 1/4 cup at a time, alternating with a small amount of milk. Add the vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.

Now, put the frosting in the fridge until ready to use.

Remove the cookie dough from the fridge.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll tablespoon amount into balls and place in mini-muffin pan.

Press down with your thumb to create the cookie cup.

Repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

They will puff up when they bake, but I pressed them back down at about 8 minutes and finished cooking for an additional two minutes.

*Tidbit: It’s better for them to be a touch underdone so the sides do not get too hard. Check them at 8 and 10 minutes.*

Remove from pan and allow to cool.

While they are cooling, prepare your ganache, also taken directly from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

To make the

Chocolate Ganache:

1/4 cup non-dairy milk (I used dark chocolate almond)

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

In a small saucepan, bring almond milk to a gentle boil. Remove from the heat and add the semi-sweet chocolate and maple syrup. Stir until completely smooth.

To assemble the cookie cups:

Add a small spoonful of the ganache to each cookie up.

Pipe or spoon in buttercream frosting.

Drizzle with additional ganache.

I added a small peppermint stick to half.

I added these cupcake toppers to the other half for the peppermint haters.

Here they are before the competition:

These cookie cups are definitely winners.

I hope you decide to devour some!

In case you’re wondering why I walked my 5k, it’s because there are two people in this photo!

“Where do you think you’re going? Nobody’s leaving. Nobody’s walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We’re all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We’re gonna press on, and we’re gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he’s gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.”

–Clark Griswold, Christmas Vacation-

Watching Christmas Vacation in this house pretty much signifies that the holiday season is in full swing.

I set out big pot of white bean and spinach soup, maple cinnamon popcorn, and a couple cherry and pomegranate martinis.

Then we slurped, crunched, and sipped our way through all the Griswold shenanigans.

In a perfect Christmas world, I would have a cup of old-fashioned egg nog sloshing around a Marty the Moose glass in one hand, and a big old piece of rich chocolate fudge in the other hand.

Once spring had sprung, I thought the running bug would bite, but it didn’t.

I was having too much fun boating and biking.

And since my dog could no longer tackle long walks with me, my sneaks had pretty much been sidelined.

I tried to run a couple of times during the hiatus, but it was painfully boring and then the three months I spent trying to replace my beloved (and no longer produced) Reebok Real Flex’s resulted in serious “dislike” relationship with a pair of New Balances.

Mentally, I was just kind of over it.

But I didn’t want to be.

I wanted to want to run again.

So I went back to a pair of tried and true Brooks running shoes and hit the ground, well, running.

But then I got rumbled.

RUMBLED:

THE ACT OF BEING HUMBLED BY RUNNING.

It was freakin’ hard.

Like, really hard.

Like, I thought my lungs and my legs were going to explode.

There was no way I was going to make it the planned three miles.

Three miles.

Because three miles was nothing six months ago.

It was a jaunt that barely had me breaking a sweat.

Except now three miles was the death of me.

I felt completely inadequate.

And defeated.

I was never the greatest runner, but this was just sad.

I was mentally beating myself up way harder than any run had ever hurt me physically.

It simplifies all of the confusion surrounding food, diets, scientific research and recommendations.

I believe the same simplistic mindset can be applied to exercise.

Be active

Be consistent

Don’t do “too much”

1. BE ACTIVE

Somehow, exercise became synonymous with being a gym rat. I would argue that true exercise are the things you do in your daily life that have the added bonus of keeping you fit. These are the things you either have to do like cleaning the house and shoveling snow or the things you do for fun like playing a pick-up game of basketball or walking the dogs. Every move you make is an “activity.” I think of exercise as just a more “structured” activity. Don’t beat yourself up if you had to mow your acre of land with a push-mower but didn’t make to the gym in time for spin class. You worked plenty of muscles mowing. Now, if you have a riding mower and haven’t walked more than 20 feet today, get your ass on a treadmill.

2. BE CONSISTENT

I think this is probably the most important concept for anyone trying to be more active or exercise more. It really doesn’t matter what you decide to do, it only matters that you are consistent. When I first started exercising, I loathed the gym and the thought of running made me vomit in my mouth a little bit. So I did something I was already good at.

I walked.

And I committed to walking for 20 minutes at least three days a week.

It may not seem like a lot, but I knew that I could accomplish that consistently. Over time, the walks increased, I added yoga and eventually I picked up my feet and started to jog-sloooooowwwwwly. I knew that if I wanted exercise to become part of my lifestyle, I would have to enjoy what I was doing so I took things slowly until I was ready for more.

Note that being consistent does not mean doing the exact same thing over and over again.

Which leads me to my next point…

3. DON’T DO TOO MUCH

Don’t go all out, guns blazing, and try to run a marathon after you’ve been a couch potato for 20 years. You probably could do it, but at what cost? Is the risk of injury, broken toe nails, and grueling training schedules really how you want to make your foray into an active lifestyle? Its hard to get motivated to be more active when spend all of your free time recovering.

Or maybe you are fit enough to run a marathon.

It doesn’t mean you have to train for one year round. It’s no surprise that in a country where bigger always equals better, that exercise that is harder, longer, and more demanding is scarily becoming the trend.

It’s more natural to choose a variety of activities, take breaks from doing repetitive exercise, and let your body rest so that it can rebuild and repair.

Think about it.

Back in the day, farmers worked the land all spring and summer-an extremely physically demanding task.

And what did they do in the winter?

They rested.

They rested so that they had the strength and energy to do it all again next spring.

I realize that in this day and age, we don’t have to gear up to till hundreds of acres of land, but if you spent the summer running, biking, hiking, and racing, feel free to take it in a different direction for a while.

Do some yoga, lift heavy things, or try some high intensity interval work-outs.

Doing the same workouts for years on end is a sure fire way to burn your muscles and bones out.

And I’m really trying to be a 90 year old professional ski jumper.

So I need to keep myself healthy until then.

I’m sure this goes without saying, but I’m not a freakin’ doctor, I’m not a trainer, and I really have no formal education in exercise other than picking the brain of my ninja friend.

You know, this being the last day of of the last year of an entire decade of being a twenty something.

I’m sure I’m supposed to have come to important life realizations, looked back fondly at the crazy, bad, awesome decisions I made over the last ten years, and reflected on how much I’ve grown as a human being.

Instead I realized that I married Smokey The Bear’s long lost brother.

Perhaps I should be in some sort of existential crisis state where I round up all of my regrets and ruminate about time lost.

Except that’s all very serious and whiny.

And I try not to do that outside of my own head.

So here it is.

The last hurrah of my roaring 20’s.

Which naturally occurred the weekend before my 30th birthday.

Because I don’t go out during the week.

Because I’m old.

But not too old to celebrate a good craft beer.

Beer builds bridges into the future.

As a thirtysomething.

A time when getting kitchen appliances is more exciting than kicking ass at keg-stands.